Nokton 50/1.1 broken...

[Frontman]

Yesterday I finally went out and bought a new Nokton 50/1.1. I got home in the late afternoon and mounted the lens on my M6, which I then took out to shoot around the neighborhood. I shot a roll of film, loaded another, and the went to shoot some more. I focused on a nearby bridge to take a low-light shot, I turned the aperture dial on the lens but I got no change in the meter arrow in the viewfinder, which I noticed was blinking. My first thought was that I had left the lens cap on, but looking into the front of the lens I noticed the aperture blades were closed. I turned the aperture ring again and found that all of the aperture blades were floating around inside the lens.

I walked home in a poor mood and took a closer look at the lens. I noticed that the 4 screws which hold the base of the lens in place were all loose.

Needless to say I am not very impressed with the build quality of this lens. I will return it to the shop where I bought it and get a refund.

Has anyone else had a similar problem with this lens? Should I exchange it for another? Or should I just call it quits and get something else?

 

[hteasley]

I have the 1,1/50 and haven't seen anything like that. It's rock solid, and has been very dependable. Back focuses, but that aside, it's a good lens.

 

[sevres_babylone]

I had a similar problem -- not sure I'd describe the blades as floating, but they definitely looked weird. Had it replaced under warranty and have had no problems with the replacement (except the screwing the hood on the filter problem). No back focus that I can see with my R-D1.

 

[David Murphy]

The Ultron 35mm F1.7 has pretty light build quality - be careful stressing it too much rotationally such as if one is removing a LTM->M adapter or something like that -- it can come part pretty easily. It's a winner optically however. A lot of the old East German SLR lenses were like this: marginal build quality, fine optics. In fairness the CV's overall are better made than anything from Pentacon and related firms however.

 

[berlincontemporary]

I noticed that the 4 screws which hold the base of the lens in place were all loose.

Hard to believe that story.

 

[ferider]

"Floating" aperture blades are also known to happen with the 35/1.2.

 

[leicashot]

"Floating" aperture blades are also known to happen with the 35/1.2.

really, what makes it know? I wasn't aware of it

 

[noimmunity]

Hey Kristian, I remember reading the same experience, with the 35/1.2, here on RFF. Yet I doubt it is more than a couple of lenses out of a thousand.
FWIW, my chrome version isn't built any better (or worse) than the standard black one, as far as I can tell. It just doesn't brass.
Jon

 

[Neare]

When I owned the 1.1 it was solid as a rock, nothing wrong with it. Nothing ever got lose while using it rather intensely either.

I think you just got a bad batch and that can happen to any lens manufacturer. Yes, even Leica lenses are sometimes sold with defects. 🙂